Volvo Estate Concept (2014) first official pictures

By Ollie Kew

First Official Pictures

27 February 2014 11:00

This is the Volvo Concept Estate, which will be shown at the 2014 Geneva motor show. It’s a true three-door shooting brake wagon: Volvo claims it points strongly toward the future design of its V70 and XC70 estate models.

Rather than going down the swooping roofline/thick pillars route for his shooting brake design, Volvo’s new design boss Thomas Ingenlath was inspired by the P1800 ES of the 1970s.

The glassy tailgate and three-door layout remain from the classic car, but the strong shoulderline is something much fresher – it’s clearly a sister car to the XC Concept 4x4.

Then there’s the bluff, concave-grille nose – it’s straight from the rather handsome Coupe Concept which kicked off the Volvo design revolution back in early 2013.

The Estate Concept is Ingenlath's third and final chance to do a cool, no hold-barred design concept before he’s tones down his brush strokes for production-ready cars – starting with the new 2014 XC90.

On this basis, it looks like Volvo’s set to fight back against the Germans with some seriously smart new family cars. After all, Ingenlath tells CAR he’s inspired by smartly pressed trousers!

The car rides on polished 21in alloy wheels, and sports several new Volvo design trademarks: C-shaped rear lights, T-shaped LED front lights, and the ‘floating’ main grille.

Inside, the Estate Concept’s layout is much the same as the 2013 Coupe Concept. Only infotainment volume, play/pause, the hazard lights and window heaters get dedicated buttons: everything else is accessed by a 9.7in central touchscreen.

The Peugeot-Citroen-style touchscreen-for-everything approach is set to be included in all future Volvos, dramatically slashing the button count inside the cabin. Sustainably-sourced wood and leather is used to trim the four-seater interior, which is bathed in light by a full-length glass roof.

By Ollie Kew